Before you can use tax tables for PAYG calculations, the tables must be 'loaded' using the Setup > Load PAYG Tax Tables function. This loads a set of tax tables into your company file and they stay in that file until replaced with a new set.
What this means is that where-ever you take your company file, the tax tables are inside the file, and so they come with you. So whether you copy your company file onto a USB flashdrive and open it on a different computer, or if you have several computers on a network that access your company file, every computer and therefore every user is using the same set of tax tables. This is how MYOB® was designed.
My computer crashed and I had to re-install MYOB® - provided you have a copy of your company file, that file will still contain the tax tables you last used. You do not have to 're-load' the tax tables. In fact if you do 're-load' the tax tables using the Setup > Load PAYG Tax Tables function, you may in fact replace your current set of tax tables that are in the company file, with an old set that originally came with your version of MYOB®.
If you need to re-install MYOB® we recommend immediately re-naming a file called 'pay2myob.bin' in the MYOB installation folder (for example C:\Plus19). This file contains the original tax tables that came with MYOB® and will be used by MYOB® if you run the Setup > Load PAYG Tax Tables function. Renaming it might prevent some-one inadvertently re-loading old tax tables into your file.
Note - if you ever need to re-load tax tables purchased from FGH Tables, always use our FGH Tax Table Updater program available from our website.
Why then are some users greeted with this message every time they try to do something payroll related:
If you have already loaded tax tables into this company file, there is only one reason why you would see this message - your tax tables were loaded using version 19.7 (or higher), however a computer running version 19.6 (or lower) has
opened this company file.
Although the tax tables changed with the release of version 19.7, unfortunately the MYOB developers did not enforce a version upgrade at this point. Normally when there is a structural change in a program (as with the tax tables in version 19.7), there is a version upgrade, such as from version 18 to version 19. Once a file is upgraded to version 19, it cannot be opened in version 18.
However a company file which has had tax tables loaded using version 19.7, can still be opened in version 19.6, 19.5 and 19.0. And when this happens, v19.6, v19.5 and v19.0 will all reset a flag in the file to force a user to re-load the tax tables. Because the version 19.7 (or later) tax tables are different, these earlier versions conclude they are faulty and must be re-loaded.
This issue caused a flood of users reporting this problem when version 19.7 first came out. It was clear from forum posts and other comments that even the MYOB staff/developers did not initially know what was causing the problem.
The solution is to firstly ensure all computers that access this company file are running the same version, then re-load the tax tables. Finally, check each and every employee to ensure they are still using the correct tax table. Many users reported that after such an incident, some of their employees were attached to the wrong tax table.
Once all the computers are running the same version, this issues does not re-emerge.
For those interested in the detail - read on....
Many MYOB® users are reporting tax table related issues with AR v19.7. The purpose of this note is to give you a run-down of the issues, causes and suggested work-arounds.
Load Tax Tables
The most commonly reported problem is the repeated appearance of this message, whenever a payroll related function is selected.
While all the relevant screens will say the tax tables are loaded already, this message continues to annoy users who have loaded their tax tables countless times. According to MYOB, this behaviour is caused by not having all computers which access the company file being updated to v19.7. The
solution according to MYOB, ensure all computers are updated to v19.7. This tends to solve the problem.
Unfortunately MYOB developers did not take into account that company files are often opened by different versions, especially when the file moves between a client and their consultant or bookkeeper. A
better solution would be for MYOB to release an 'update' to the 'compliance update' as detailed below to ensure backward compatibility and avoid all these problems.
What they should have done in the first place was forced a version upgrade on the company file before it could be opened in v19.7. This would have ensured the company file could no longer be opened in earlier versions and the whole issue would have been avoided.
Explanation
Each company file has a "flag" or indicator to notify MYOB whether tax tables have been loaded or not. When a company file is first created, the indicator is off. As soon as you go to do something payroll related, you get the message "The setup for Payroll is incomplete. The next step is to load your tax tables." Once the tax tables are loaded, the flag is set to on.
Everytime a company file is opened, MYOB checks this flag. If the flag is on, it also checks the tax tables to ensure they are complete. If there is a problem with the tax tables, the flag is set to off to force the user to reload the tax tables.
As an example, AccountRight v19.5 was released with 33 tax tables or Tax Scales. When opening a company file, AccountRight v19.5 checks that there are at least 33 Tax Scales loaded.
AccountRight v19.7 however was released with 27 Tax Scales, due to changes made by the ATO. The No Leave Loading Tax Scales were removed and 2 other Tax Scales were amalgamated. So when AccountRight v19.7 loads tax tables, it loads the 27 Tax Scales. If this company file is opened in any other version, for example AccountRight v19.5, AccountRight v19.5 will check for at least 33 Tax Scales, and finding only 27, AccountRight v19.5 will reset the "flag" to indicate tax tables are
not loaded - forcing the user to re-load.
In a nutshell, according to a software developer we have spoken to, this is what is happening. It should be noted that AccountRight v19.7 does not count the number of Tax Scales, so it can open an AccountRight v19.5 company file with 33 Tax Scales without resetting the "flag".
Employee's Tax Table has changed
The other problem reported with AccountRight v19.7 is that some employees have had their allocated tax table changed. The most common complaint being that the employee is now mysteriously on
No Tax Free Threshold + HELP as shown below:
MYOB allocates each of the tax tables a consecutive number (referred to as TaxScaleID). See this extract below from MYOB's 19.5 ODBC Driver manual:
In the company file MYOB simply records the TaxScaleID, for example a 2 for an employee using the
Tax Free Threshold table. The problem is certain tables were dropped in AccountRight v19.7.
For example in AccountRight v19.5 TaxScaleID 8 was
Tax Free Threshold/No Leave Loading. When a company file which had TaxScaleID 8 allocated to an employee is opened in AccountRight v19.7, the employee's tax table (TaxScaleID 8) is now shown as
No Tax Free Threshold + HELP as this is the 8th tax table name in AccountRight v19.7.
Now this is the tricky bit, even though AccountRight v19.7 shows this employee's tax table to be
No Tax Free Threshold + HELP, when processing payroll, it will use the rates from the 8th tax table that was loaded into this company file. If the tax tables were last loaded using AccountRight v19.6 (because the company file was accidentally opened in AccountRight v19.6 and the user was prompted to 'Load Tax Tables'), the 8th tax table in the company file will actually be the
Tax Free Threshold/No Leave Loading table and MYOB® will use these rates. Confusing? Absolutely!
If there is a mismatch between the version that last loaded the tax tables and the version you are using for processing payroll, the tax table name will not line up with the tax table rates. This image below shows the tax table name AccountRight v19.7 will display as well as the rates it will use if the tax tables were last loaded by AccountRight v19.6
Only employees on the first 7 Tax Scales are safe from this confusion and possible erroneous PAYG deductions. It is important to check the Tax Table allocated to every employee once you update to AccountRight v19.7.
Moving a Company File between AccountRight v19.7 and an earlier version
What if you have to move a company file between AccountRight v19.7 and say AccountRight v19.6 - for example where a bookkeeper is using AccountRight v19.7 and the client is using AccountRight v19.6.
Obviously this is best avoided if possible. If not possible, see below:
To avoid resetting the flag. It is recommended that the tax tables be loaded using the earlier version and not AccountRight v19.7. For example if the company file is to be opened in AccountRight v19.6 and AccountRight v19.7, use AccountRight v19.6 to load the tax tables - this will prevent flag resetting. Up to date tax tables are available from FGHTables for all v19 products.
To avoid using the wrong tax table for an employee. In addition to the above recommendation, ensure payroll is
only processed in either AccountRight v19.6
or AccountRight v19.7, not both. Whichever version was used to load the tax tables should be used to process payroll. That way the tax table shown on the employee's card will match the rates used in the payroll calculation.
An 'Update' to the 'Update'?
What we think MYOB developers
should have done is released v19.7 with 33 tax tables for backward compatability. This would have made things much easier for both clients and their consultants. The 6 unused tax tables could have been empty or filled with the rates for the equivalent table. For example the
Tax Free Threshold No LL (Table 8) could have contained the same rates as the
Tax Free Threshold (Table 2) as this would be the table employees who were previously on Table 8 would now use.
This would have avoided all the problems about having v19.7 on every computer that opens the company file, as well as the tax table mismatch issue. Perhaps users can suggest MYOB issue a corrective update as this problem will continue into later financial years.
An alternative solution would have been to force a file upgrade in order to open the company file in v19.7. This would prevent the file from being opened in earlier versions, and would also prevent all these issues.
